WHY WE FELL IN LOVE
Now, we hate to sound shallow, but Elderflowers first caught our eye with their looks. Initial contact made, we soon discovered there’s much more than pretty petals to this plant. We’re talking therapeutic rumours here. Elderflowers are believed to reduce fever, boost our immune systems, soothe our respiratory systems, help with ear infections and promote general healing. Oh, and they taste like summer too.

We’re thinking BBQs – in the sunshine that we’re sure is just around the corner. But, if our optimism is proved misplaced, you can grill, bake, or griddle the fish instead. Whatever the weather this dish tastes of summer.

Method
Put all ingredients (apart from the fish!) into a saucepan, stir, cover and cook on a very low heat for 45 mins – until you reach a consistency of runny jam.
Transfer to a clean jar and leave to cool.
Store in the fridge for up to a week.

Delicious with mackerel. Whole, gutted and scaled:
On a hot BBQ, grill the belly side for approx 5 mins, and the reverse for 2 – 3 mins. Just long enough for the skin to crisp and golden.

There’s an awful lot of information to take in about the humble fish. We’ve trawled through it (sorry…) and we think we now have a better understanding of what’s going on.

It seems clear that things aren’t well in the underwater world. There’s more radiation, more plastic, more chemicals and more oil. The only thing that there is less of, it appears, is fish. Here in Europe, we’re fishing so fast, supplies can’t keep up. The fish can’t reproduce quickly enough to fulfil our appetites. Quite simply, the ones that make up most of our weekly supermarket buys are running out.

And the problems don’t end there. The methods we use to catch our dinner make things worse. Huge trawl nets capture more fish than they need (or are allowed to bring ashore) – and these are just thrown back. Dead. At the moment, half the fish caught in the North Sea alone is thrown back this way; with young fish making up a scarily high percentage. It doesn’t bode well for the future.

As if all this wasn’t enough, as well as catching too many, we’re often catching the ‘wrong’ sorts. ‘Fish aggregation devices’ (FADs – a kind of floating raft in the sea that certain fish (especially tuna) are attracted to), are a key example. They attract more than the tuna they are aimed at – they lure in turtles, sharks and rays too. FADs are becoming notorious for bringing in fish that are too young and so upsetting growth rates as well as for disrupting the general migration patterns.

It’s a huge story. And not one that we can tell as well is Hugh. But what we can do is talk you through the Wholesome Seduction way of being friendlier to fish, and to be honest it’s very simple.

Eat more of it!

Try out different types, rather than sticking to poor old cod, tuna and salmon. Here’s a list of some of the most plentiful fish in our oceans: